Cerro Sechín

This article is about the archaeological site. For the civilization it belonged to, see Casma/Sechin culture.

Relief of a warrior at Cerro Sechin.

Cerro Sechín (also Sechín de las Estelas) is an archaeological site in Casma Province of Ancash Region in northern Peru. Dating to 1600 BC, the site was discovered by Peruvian archaeologists Julio C. Tello and Toribio Mejía Xesspe on July 1, 1937. Tello believed it was the capital of an entire culture, now known as the Casma/Sechin culture or Sechin complex. Notable features include megalithic architecture with carved figures in bas-relief, which graphically dramatize human sacrifices.[1] Cerro Sechín is situated within the Sechin Alto Complex, as are Sechin Bajo, and Taukachi-Konkan. There is a small on-site museum.[2] The slabs at Cerro Sechin may represent the central Andes' oldest known monumental sculpture.[3]

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Cerro Sechín sits on a granitic hill,[3] in the Casma Valley. It is located 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) east of the Pan-American Highway,[4] 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) from the provincial capital of Casma and 168 miles (270 km) north of Lima.[1] It is situated 13 kilometres (8.1 mi) from the Pacific Ocean,[5] near the confluence of the Sechin and Moxeke Rivers at an altitude of 90 metres (300 ft) above sea level. The site contains walled enclosures around dwellings as well as temple platforms.[3] Although the archaeological site occupies approximately 5 acres (2.0 ha), the monuments are grouped in a single hectare.

Sechin Complex in the Casma Valley.

The Sechin Complex is made up of several sites, including Cerro Sechin. In the Sechin riverbank, to the northeast, is the complex of Sechin Alto. Considered the greatest architectural complex of Peru, it covers 300–400 acres (120–160 ha). Sechin Bajo, nearest to Cerro Sechin, is on the other side of the river. Sechin Bajo was excavated from 1990 and its deeper layer was found in the year 2008; finds include the remains of a circular plaza of stone and mud dating to the Late Archaic period from 3,500 BC. Taukachi-Konkan is the northernmost of the sites within the complex.[6]

Who developed Cerro Sechin, how it was constructed,[4] and the nature of the site's ceremonies are unknown; little is known about the community associated with the site.[7] The site dates to 1600 BC,[2] approximately the end of the Periodo Arcaico Andino period and early Formativo Inferior period. It was completed before 2000 BC but remained in use until about 1500 BC, before the start of the Chavín culture.

Rigorous excavation and research occurred at Cerro Sechin after its 1937 discovery by Tello and Xesspe.[4] He felt that this monument was proof of the influence of the Chavin culture in the Casma Valley. However, later research determined that Cerro Sechin predates the shrine of Chavin, making Cerro Sechin the forerunner of the architecture and iconography of Chavin. In terms of function, Cerro Sechin served as a central administration place for production, distribution and food stocks, and also of worship as a ceremonial center.

There are several buildings, made from clay and stone. One of the clay building, remodeled in three phases, dates between 2400 and 2300 BC. Flanking the main buildings are two other buildings (Building A and Building C) and two platforms (platform Julio Cesar Tello and platform Rafael Larco). The main building is 51 square metres (550 sq ft) and 4 metres (13 ft) in height.[5] Though roofs no longer survive, their design is evidenced on pottery vessels.[3] The temple, rectangular in design with rounded corner, was constructed of conical adobes; its entrance is on the north side. Its perimeter wall of monoliths or stelae is of earlier construction. A double staircase, about 4 feet (1.2 m) high, leads to the top.[4]

The most striking feature of the stone building is its lithic block facade decorated with reliefs representing "warrior-priests" and mutilated bodies. The etched bas-reliefs number approximately 300, from axe-wielding warriors, to body parts, and victims, who are decapitated and mutilated.[7] The characters are of two types: the warrior-priests (wearing a weapon or scepter) and dismembered victims or their offal (mainly heads, limbs, eyes skewered, intestines, vertebrae and viscera). These figures represent humans and demigods, without the presence of animals. In the interior of the adobe building, the main decoration is the best preserved. It depicts two mythological fish. Another figure depicts a man bleeding. These depictions closely relate to the sea, rain and human sacrifices. Carving methods include bevelled cuts, such as those found on body contours, and shallow incisions, such as noted in eyelids and lips.[3] There have been various interpretations of the stone carvings. One interpretation is that of battle scenes, carved to commemorate a great battle, with foreign victorious warriors and defeated Casma people.[8] An alternate theory is that the site was a laboratory for anatomical studies, which explains the explicit exposure of different parts of the human body, such as organs and bones. Yet another theory is that it represents a popular bloody rebellion, crushed by the ruling elite.

1.
Peru
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Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the west by the Pacific Ocean. Peruvian territory was home to ancient cultures spanning from the Norte Chico civilization in Caral, one of the oldest in the world, to the Inca Empire, the largest state in Pre-Columbian America. The Spanish Empire conquered the region in the 16th century and established a Viceroyalty with its capital in Lima, ideas of political autonomy later spread throughout Spanish America and Peru gained its independence, which was formally proclaimed in 1821. After the battle of Ayacucho, three years after proclamation, Peru ensured its independence, subsequently, the country has undergone changes in government from oligarchic to democratic systems. Peru has gone through periods of political unrest and internal conflict as well as periods of stability, Peru is a representative democratic republic divided into 25 regions. It is a country with a high Human Development Index score. Its main economic activities include mining, manufacturing, agriculture and fishing, the Peruvian population, estimated at 31.2 million in 2015, is multiethnic, including Amerindians, Europeans, Africans and Asians. The main spoken language is Spanish, although a significant number of Peruvians speak Quechua or other native languages and this mixture of cultural traditions has resulted in a wide diversity of expressions in fields such as art, cuisine, literature, and music. The name of the country may be derived from Birú, the name of a ruler who lived near the Bay of San Miguel, Panama. When his possessions were visited by Spanish explorers in 1522, they were the southernmost part of the New World yet known to Europeans, thus, when Francisco Pizarro explored the regions farther south, they came to be designated Birú or Perú. An alternative history is provided by the contemporary writer Inca Garcilasco de la Vega, son of an Inca princess, the Spanish Crown gave the name legal status with the 1529 Capitulación de Toledo, which designated the newly encountered Inca Empire as the province of Peru. Under Spanish rule, the country adopted the denomination Viceroyalty of Peru, the earliest evidences of human presence in Peruvian territory have been dated to approximately 9,000 BC. Andean societies were based on agriculture, using such as irrigation and terracing, camelid husbandry. Organization relied on reciprocity and redistribution because these societies had no notion of market or money, the oldest known complex society in Peru, the Norte Chico civilization, flourished along the coast of the Pacific Ocean between 3,000 and 1,800 BC. These early developments were followed by archaeological cultures that developed mostly around the coastal, the Cupisnique culture which flourished from around 1000 to 200 BC along what is now Perus Pacific Coast was an example of early pre-Incan culture. The Chavín culture that developed from 1500 to 300 BC was probably more of a religious than a political phenomenon, on the coast, these included the civilizations of the Paracas, Nazca, Wari, and the more outstanding Chimu and Mochica. Their capital was at Chan Chan outside of modern-day Trujillo, in the 15th century, the Incas emerged as a powerful state which, in the span of a century, formed the largest empire in pre-Columbian America with their capital in Cusco

2.
Relief
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Relief is a sculptural technique where the sculpted elements remain attached to a solid background of the same material. The term relief is from the Latin verb relevo, to raise, to create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the sculpted material has been raised above the background plane. What is actually performed when a relief is cut in from a surface of stone or wood is a lowering of the field. The technique involves considerable chiselling away of the background, which is a time-consuming exercise. In other materials such as metal, clay, plaster stucco, ceramics or papier-mâché the form can be just added to or raised up from the background, and monumental bronze reliefs are made by casting. There are different degrees of relief depending on the degree of projection of the form from the field. There is also sunk relief, which was restricted to Ancient Egypt. However the distinction between high relief and low relief is the clearest and most important, and these two are generally the only used to discuss most work. Hyphens may or may not be used in all these terms, works in the technique are described as in relief, and, especially in monumental sculpture, the work itself is a relief. Reliefs are common throughout the world on the walls of buildings and a variety of settings. Relief is more suitable for depicting complicated subjects with figures and very active poses, such as battles. Most ancient architectural reliefs were painted, which helped to define forms in low relief. Rock reliefs are carved into solid rock in the open air. This type is found in cultures, in particular those of the Ancient Near East and Buddhist countries. A stele is a standing stone, many of these carry reliefs. The distinction between high and low relief is somewhat subjective, and the two are often combined in a single work. In particular, most later high reliefs contain sections in low relief, a low relief or bas-relief is a projecting image with a shallow overall depth, for example used on coins, on which all images are in low relief. Other versions distort depth much less and it is a technique which requires less work, and is therefore cheaper to produce, as less of the background needs to be removed in a carving, or less modelling is required

3.
Pacific Ocean
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The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of the Earths oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south and is bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, the Mariana Trench in the western North Pacific is the deepest point in the world, reaching a depth of 10,911 metres. Both the center of the Water Hemisphere and the Western Hemisphere are in the Pacific Ocean, the oceans current name was coined by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan during the Spanish circumnavigation of the world in 1521, as he encountered favourable winds on reaching the ocean. He called it Mar Pacífico, which in both Portuguese and Spanish means peaceful sea, important human migrations occurred in the Pacific in prehistoric times. Long-distance trade developed all along the coast from Mozambique to Japan, trade, and therefore knowledge, extended to the Indonesian islands but apparently not Australia. By at least 878 when there was a significant Islamic settlement in Canton much of trade was controlled by Arabs or Muslims. In 219 BC Xu Fu sailed out into the Pacific searching for the elixir of immortality, from 1404 to 1433 Zheng He led expeditions into the Indian Ocean. The east side of the ocean was discovered by Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa in 1513 after his expedition crossed the Isthmus of Panama and he named it Mar del Sur because the ocean was to the south of the coast of the isthmus where he first observed the Pacific. Later, Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan sailed the Pacific East to West on a Castilian expedition of world circumnavigation starting in 1519, Magellan called the ocean Pacífico because, after sailing through the stormy seas off Cape Horn, the expedition found calm waters. The ocean was often called the Sea of Magellan in his honor until the eighteenth century, sailing around and east of the Moluccas, between 1525 and 1527, Portuguese expeditions discovered the Caroline Islands, the Aru Islands, and Papua New Guinea. In 1542–43 the Portuguese also reached Japan, in 1564, five Spanish ships consisting of 379 explorers crossed the ocean from Mexico led by Miguel López de Legazpi and sailed to the Philippines and Mariana Islands. The Manila galleons operated for two and a half centuries linking Manila and Acapulco, in one of the longest trade routes in history, Spanish expeditions also discovered Tuvalu, the Marquesas, the Cook Islands, the Solomon Islands, and the Admiralty Islands in the South Pacific. In the 16th and 17th century Spain considered the Pacific Ocean a Mare clausum—a sea closed to other naval powers, as the only known entrance from the Atlantic the Strait of Magellan was at times patrolled by fleets sent to prevent entrance of non-Spanish ships. On the western end of the Pacific Ocean the Dutch threatened the Spanish Philippines, Spain also sent expeditions to the Pacific Northwest reaching Vancouver Island in southern Canada, and Alaska. The French explored and settled Polynesia, and the British made three voyages with James Cook to the South Pacific and Australia, Hawaii, and the North American Pacific Northwest, one of the earliest voyages of scientific exploration was organized by Spain in the Malaspina Expedition of 1789–1794. It sailed vast areas of the Pacific, from Cape Horn to Alaska, Guam and the Philippines, New Zealand, Australia, and the South Pacific. Growing imperialism during the 19th century resulted in the occupation of much of Oceania by other European powers, and later, Japan, in Oceania, France got a leading position as imperial power after making Tahiti and New Caledonia protectorates in 1842 and 1853 respectively. After navy visits to Easter Island in 1875 and 1887, Chilean navy officer Policarpo Toro managed to negotiate an incorporation of the island into Chile with native Rapanui in 1888, by occupying Easter Island, Chile joined the imperial nations

4.
Pan-American Highway
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The Pan-American Highway is a network of roads measuring about 30,000 kilometres in total length. Except for a rainforest break of approximately 160 km, called the Darién Gap, according to Guinness World Records, the Pan-American Highway is the worlds longest motorable road. However, because of the Darién Gap, it is not possible to cross between South America and Central America. Jake Silverstein, writing in 2006, described the Pan-American Highway as a system so vast, so incomplete, the idea of building a highway emerged at the Fifth International Conference of American States in 1923. The first conference regarding construction of the highway occurred on October 5,1925, in 1950, Mexico became the first Latin American country to complete its portion of the highway. Several southern highway termini are claimed to exist, including the cities of Puerto Montt and Quellón in Chile and Ushuaia in Argentina. West and north of the Darien Gap, it is known as the Inter-American Highway through Central America. All routes north of the contiguous 48 states are unofficial, Interstate 25 runs north from Interstate 10 at Las Cruces, New Mexico to Interstate 90 in Wyoming. This route has no extension into Canada, but links indirectly to Interstate 15 which leads to Alberta Highway 2. Interstate 35 is a continuation of the original Pan-American highway following Mexican Federal Highway 85. It extends from Laredo, Texas to the Canada–United States border north of Duluth, Minnesota with a spur, Interstate 29, in Canada, no particular road has been officially or unofficially designated as the Pan-American Highway. However, some claims have been made based on routes that are a natural extension of several key American highways that reach the Canada–US border. British Columbia Highway 97 and Highway 2 to Alberta both pick up where the end of the Alaska highway leaves off. Highway 97 becomes U. S. Route 97 at the Canada–US border, i-15 runs south all the way to San Diego where it converges with Interstate 5 then heads east as Interstate 8. This links indirectly via a stretch of Interstate 10 to Interstate 19 that becomes a spur of the Pan-American highway through Mexico at the Nogales border crossing. In 1966, the Federal Highway Administration designated the entire Interstate Highway System part of the Pan-American Highway System, the section of Interstate 35 in San Antonio, Texas is referred to as the Pan Am Expressway by locals. As a result, the Trans-Canada Highway from Alberta to Thunder Bay has been considered as a route for the Pan-American Highway. This portion of I-25 largely follows the historic Camino Real, like I-35, the complete route of Interstate 25 is an official northerly continuation towards Alberta, where Highway 2 provides a direct link to the Alaska Highway

5.
Lima
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Lima is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín rivers, in the coastal part of the country. Together with the seaport of Callao, it forms an urban area known as the Lima Metropolitan Area. With a population of almost 10 million, Lima is the most populous area of Peru. Lima was founded by Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro on January 18,1535 and it became the capital and most important city in the Spanish Viceroyalty of Peru. Following the Peruvian War of Independence, it became the capital of the Republic of Peru, around one-third of the national population lives in the metropolitan area. Lima is home to one of the oldest higher-learning institutions in the New World, the National University of San Marcos, founded on May 12,1551 during the Spanish colonial regime, is the oldest continuously functioning university in the Americas. In October 2013 Lima was chosen to host the 2019 Pan American Games and it also hosted the December 2014 United Nations Climate Change Conference and the Miss Universe 1982 pageant. In October 2015 Lima hosted the 2015 Annual Meetings of the World Bank Group, according to early Spanish articles the Lima area was once called Itchyma, after its original inhabitants. However, even before the Inca occupation of the area in the 15th century and this oracle was eventually destroyed by the Spanish and replaced with a church, but the name persisted, the chronicles show Límac replacing Ychma as the common name for the area. Modern scholars speculate that the word Lima originated as the Spanish pronunciation of the native name Limaq, linguistic evidence seems to support this theory as spoken Spanish consistently rejects stop consonants in word-final position. Non-Peruvian Spanish speakers may mistakenly define the city name as the direct Spanish translation of lime, the city was founded in 1535 under the name City of the Kings because its foundation was decided on January 6, date of the feast of the Epiphany. This name quickly fell into disuse and Lima became the name of choice, on the oldest Spanish maps of Peru. The river that feeds Lima is called Rímac and many people assume that this is because its original Inca name is Talking River. However, the inhabitants of the valley were not Incas. This name is an innovation arising from an effort by the Cuzco nobility in colonial times to standardize the toponym so that it would conform to the phonology of Cuzco Quechua, later, as the original inhabitants died out and the local Quechua became extinct, the Cuzco pronunciation prevailed. Nowadays, Spanish-speaking locals do not see the connection between the name of their city and the name of the river runs through it. They often assume that the valley is named after the river, however, historically, the Flag of Lima has been known as the «Banner of Perus Kings City»

6.
Casma Province
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The Casma Province is one of twenty provinces of the Ancash Region of Peru. Casma is divided into four districts, which are, The province is inhabited by citizens of Quechua descent. Spanish is the language which the majority of the population learnt to speak in childhood,13. 82% of the residents started speaking using the Quechua language. Official website of the Casma Province

7.
International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker

A face of the high-relief Frieze of Parnassus round the base of the Albert Memorial in London. Most of the heads and many feet are completely undercut, but the torsos are "engaged" with the surface behind.

A common mixture of high and low relief relief, in the Roman Ara Pacis, placed to be seen from below. Low relief ornament at bottom.

The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the …

Universalis Cosmographia, the Waldseemüller map dated 1507, from a time when the nature of the Americas was ambiguous, particularly North America, as a possible part of Asia, was the first map to show the Americas separating two distinct oceans. South America was generally considered a "new world" and shows the name "America" for the first time, after Amerigo Vespucci

Made in 1529, the Diogo Ribeiro map was the first to show the Pacific at about its proper size

Incised Strombus-Shell Trumpet, 400-200 B.C.E, Brooklyn Museum. This shell trumpet was probably made for ceremonial use. The incised designs depict a person of high rank, indicated by his facial tattoos and ankle ornament, playing a shell trumpet. The figure is surrounded by snakes, including one that emanates from the instrument. The twisting and intertwined snakes may indicate the power of the trumpet to communicate with supernatural beings.